Weekend Box Office (Sept 9-11)

By
Sergio
|
Shadow and ActSeptember 11, 2011 at 6:00AM

As expected Contagion was No 1, with The Help (AKA the film they cannot kill) as No.2. But the this weekend's two biggest surprise were, first, the dismal opening take for Warrior, a film that Lionsgate was very high on. The film got fantastic responses from preview audiences and Lionsgste screened the hell out of the movie around the country (maybe too much so) and did a ton of publicity work for it yet it failed to catch fire.

As expected Contagion was No 1, with The Help (AKA the film they cannot kill) as No.2. But the this weekend's two biggest surprise were, first, the dismal opening take for Warrior, a film that Lionsgate was very high on. The film got fantastic responses from preview audiences and Lionsgste screened the hell out of the movie around the country (maybe too much so) and did a ton of publicity work for it yet it failed to catch fire.

It is a really good and well-acted film, but most likely filmgoers felt that it was a film that they've seen too often enough. A boxing (or in Warrior's case a mixed martial arts) movie about an underdog fighter, from a highly dysfunctional family, who overcomes adversity to rise to the top. Hey wait, didn't I see that already in The Fighter? Well yeah you have...

The other unexpected surprise was the strong showing, in limited release, of the vertically challenged comedian Kevin Hart's stand up comedy film Laugh at My Pain, which grossed $2 million on only 97 screens. Is he really that popular? Could have fooled me.